An analytical damage tolerance method accounting for delamination in compression-loaded composites

Abstract

An efficient damage tolerance (DT) analysis method is required for application during the pre- liminary design phase of a composite structure. In the present work, we describe an analytical, energy-based DT analysis method for compression-loaded composite laminates containing a delamination. Based on the sublaminate buckling as the driving phenomenon, the strain energy release rate is calculated through the virtual crack extension method. The consideration of the load transfer within the laminate allows calculating the strain energy release rate in two direc- tions which permits an assessment of the damage propagation direction. Further, the developed method permits taking into account the effects of the laminate width and the damage eccen- tricity. The obtained results are compared with other analysis approaches and validated through experiments from the literature. This validation approves the method's capability to assess the residual laminate properties, although the method turned out to be less accurate than methods presented in the literature.